Developer: Flying Wild Hog
Publisher: Devolver Digital
Price: $39.99
Release Date: US Sept 26th 2013, EU Oct 11th, 2013
“Who wants some Wang!” So said the original Lo Wang from from the cult 3D Realms classic. (You can play the retro game for free on steam here.) Has this inspired reboot of the game great? Bad? Or something better. Times have changed, and so has the tastes of many gamers out there. Already we have this division of fanboys on team Rott(Rise of the Triad), and for Shadow Warrior and its revival. Honestly people, enjoy both games. They were made from fans. For fans. With better computers, I hope. You are not looking at this review on a BBS are you?! This games story actually points all the way back to when Lo Wang worked for a man named Master Zilla. You are sent off to find a very valuable sword named the “Nobitsura Kage”. You soon discover there is more to this sword, then simply collecting it for a display piece and you along with a demon spirit friend embark on a sword slashing, gun blasting super trip.
This game is long, the pace is if you are a pretty laid back gamer is 20 hours overall. With no multiplayer. Whats so ever. Which is a good thing, that gave the developers a chance to focus on the story, and the gameplay, which is freaking fun! When you start the game, you are shown the demonstration of Lo Wangs’s sword combat. You blaze through some bodyguards, sliding, and dicing into a fine meat salsa. Sword combat is handled through combinations with the keyboard. Like D+D and middle mouse button, once you have the ability gives you healing on yourself. Another once you unlock the sword power, S+S and Left mouse button you unleash a wave attack out of your sword, pretty much one-hit-killing weaker demons. One thing I noticed during combat is at points, you need to pepper enemies, or larger crowds with the Smg, while greater demons you need to use the sword, while rushing behind them(guys with the shields). The combat was very flexible. Weapons in this game are also upgradeable. Examples, with the sword over time that upgrades as you progress in the story. The guns in this game are center pieces as well. The Tosainu Type 13 Revolver or the Zics-c Shotgun all have upgrades, gained with cash. These upgrade vary from laser sights, too a beefy quad shotgun variation. Think Phantasm. While some of the guns work very well on minor demons, big teams it requires to know which gun works best for the job to fit the bill. I found myself using the Mamsuhi Type-14 Crossbow to take down a boss during a battle. The shotgun at times, felt a bit under powered to its full concept over all. I was disappointed. But I digress. A great and awesome feature is the fact you keep whatever weapons you pickup in the game, no two gun swapping. None of that crap. The weapons can be swapped with the old school way one through nine. I overall loved the nice touch of this.
While killing enemies you gain karma, a sort of spiritual currency used for Skills. The skills are used to help Wang grow stronger in the form of transcripts. That highlight once unlocked. There are the following:
Luck – Evolves mostly finding cash, and ammo in plentiful amounts. As well as boosts your chance to land critical shots on enemies during gunfights, or swinging your katana around like a mad man.
Mind – This generally is for fire resistance, ans boosting your overall Health.
Movement – Helps with speed overall. As well as boost your recovery of Stamina.
Katana Mastery – This perhaps going to be the most used skill tree in the game. This helps you unlock powerful spells, plus is required to advance in the game for the ability to break gate locks.
Knowledge – I used this tree for only the God killer, and Headhunter skills. Seeing that minor demons go down pretty fast, I felt demon slayer was not worth really looking at. This tree helps you pick up Warlord heads, and use them as weapons. You know those orcish guys from the original game, who fired tons of fire out of there mouths. This time they are massive mother lovers. As well as the infamous demon heart ability, that allows you to give demon heart attacks comes from this tree. Worth looking into.
The said skill trees in the game, play a pretty open minded role. Where you can pick certain abilities, to boost what you enjoy the most out of the game.
Overall you can upgrade every thing in the game if you find all the Karma possible. Another thing to look out for is Wang’s Powers, which are granted if you locate Ki crystals located through out the entire game. Some hidden, others in the open:
Healing – Healing is toggled by pressing D+D and MMB, or your preferred micro. I found myself maxing out this first, giving Wang a eighty percent increase for his health gained back while using the ability.
Flux – A Stunlock ability, that I never really used as much. Which would perhaps help out katana users.
This is more for crowd control then anything else, plus helps remove rage from enemies.
Shockwave – This is another crowd control technique, you can shove enemies back a great distance and recover, or unleash unholy hell on them. This also helps remove rage on enemies, with peaceful storm.
Protection – Lo Wang a Bubble paladin?! Yes, matter of fact you simply can boost your defense to all sorts of damage if you progress through this tree.
More about the game play overall. While you see faint hints of Hard reset in this game, with the narrow corridors, and gauntlet style enemy waves. Or Horde mode for those newbies stuck on Gears of War. Everything felt tight. When I did the combination to do a ability, pop, worked. The more I reached into the bag of tricks that Wang has offering to me, I always find myself back to using the Katana taking down smaller demons, including the shield guys. Felt like a crutch. Like the other guns were not up to the task. So I went ahead and maxed out a few guns to see if that made any difference, and no. Pretty much 2 to 4 clips later, you can get most enemies down after awhile. This brought me to a pleasing fact. You have to think on your feet. More then you assume your skills. Thinking you can count on one thing means fatal results. And getting your ass killed pretty quickly. The game feels a bit easy in some aspects, and others challenging.
Level design in this game is somewhat maze like, much like games of yesterday. At the same time non-linear. Well the theme of a batch of levels is the same, but non-cosmetically, you are given a few ways to wonder around. Discovering secrets also was a big time charming factor to me. From finding Hentai borderlined sprites from the older game behind waterfalls. To locating Shrines(these give you cash). The old school vibe screamed, when you locate the hidden retro rooms. Conspiring old settings from the old game, such as the subway, and the dock. I felt a rush of satisfaction. Music in this game is pretty good. Not amazing, unless you count “ YOU GOT THE TOUCH!” scene in the beginning, which had me in stitches.
In Closing:
Reboots ether succeed, or flop, like Duke Nukem Forever. At the bottom of it all Shadow Warrior was done great justice. If you know of the old game or not. It would not mean you could not fall in love with this game at hand. With a impressive twenty hour gameplay time crunch. To the pretty locations, creepy enemies, and the bad ass swordplay. You will find a few things positive to come out of this game. Otherwise you perhaps enjoy watching My Little Pony, and blog about what is the best meatball sub. For dedicated shooting fans, this is a new adventure, that is worth the money. Ether get it during the next Steam holiday sale, or sell your car. Get this game.
9.4
